Filmmakers in this category tell fantastic and true stories that will change your worldview in documentaries that are under 40 minutes. Past winners include The Queen of Basketball (2021) and The Elephant Whisperers (2022).

Some films in this program contain graphic war imagery, adult themes and language. Recommended for persons 17 and up.

2026 Films:

ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS by Joshua Seftel
In this moving short documentary, a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.

ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD by Craig Renaud and Brent Renaud
An intimate chronicle about documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE” by Hilla Medalia
In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.

THE DEVIL IS BUSY by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir
The film chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women’s healthcare clinic.

PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS by Alison McAlpine
In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.